The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
The development of portable computers, smart phones and tablets has made internet access on-the-go commonplace for many users. It is increasingly common for a user to have more than one of these devices at any given time, and the continued advances in computing and communications technology have opened up the possibility that nearly any object a user might wear or carry can become “smart”. A user might have a smart watch, smart jewelry, or computing and communication devices in pieces of clothing, one or more of which may have the capacity to communicate with each other or with the Internet and form a user's personal network or fabric. While such devices have the capacity to network with one another to exchange data with one another and to cooperate to perform tasks for a user, these devices typically lack the ability to cooperate with each other as a network to manage and optimize the functionality and power consumption of the network as a whole on a network level.
Others have put forth effort toward networked power management. For example U.S. patent application 2009/0046712 to Nordmark et al., titled “Predictive Routing Technique in the Ad Hoc Wireless Network,” published Feb. 9, 2009, describes a forwarding node that chooses a routing path to minimize the power transmission level required for the forwarding node to forward data packets. Nordmark, however, fails to teach a way to manage power management of multiple nodes in the fabric. Each of Nordmark's nodes function independently from one another.
U.S. patent application 2009/0077396 to Tsai, et al, titled “Techniques for Collaborative Power Management for Heterogeneous Networks,” published Mar. 19, 2009 discusses a module that communicates power state information between two nodes so that the two nodes can sync with each other so that both nodes can be in full power mode, low power mode, or off. Tsai, however, fails to disclose power management at a mesh or network level involving three or more nodes.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,448,001 to Zhu, titled “System Having a First Device, and Second Device in Which the Main Power Management Module is Configured to Selectively Supply a Power and Clock Signal to Change the Power State of Each Device Independently of the Other Device,” filed Mar. 2, 2010, issued May 21, 2013, describes a system where one device in a network could command another device to change from a high power state to a low power state. Zhu also fails to disclose power management of a mesh or network involving a plurality of nodes.
U.S. patent application 2011/0176463 A1 to Cowan, et al, titled “Managing Power States in Network Communications,” published Jul. 21, 2011, discusses sharing power state schedules among nodes, where devices can schedule packets to be sent when a node exits low power mode, or could command a low power node to exit from a sleep state to accept a packet. However, Cowan also fails to teach a network-wide power status or power management at a network level.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,479,028 to Tsai et al., titled “Techniques for Communications Based Power Management,” filed Sep. 11, 2008, issued Jul. 2, 2013, discusses an apparatus that turns an entire communications sub-system into an active high power consumption state or a non-active low power consumption state. Tsai, however, fails to allow granular control over network elements when managing the network.
U.S. patent application 2012/0170468 to La Macchia et al., entitled “Power Management in a Wireless Ad Hoc Network,” published Jul. 5, 2012, discusses a method of managing power in a network by assigning subsets of the epochs throughout a time period to have high power active states and low power idle states. During high traffic times, the network will have a high power active state, and during low traffic times, the network will have a low power idle state. While La Macchia teaches network-wide power management, La Macchia also fails to allow granular control over network elements when managing the network.
U.S. patent application 2013/0024710 to Jackson, entitled “System and Method for Managing Energy Consumption in a Compute Environment,” published Jan. 24, 2013, describes a system and method for reducing power consumption in clusters and grids by predicting future workload, and ensuring that nodes in a grid are idle until they are required to run a queued workload. Jackson, however, fails to recognize that nodes could have a plurality of low-power states suitable for different types of workloads, and that user input could alter a workload schedule dynamically.
Thus, there remains a need for a system and method for an improved network-level power management device to optimize power drain across an entire fabric.